Tessellation table topper

Today I share with you my Tesselation Table Topper, I completey blame the name of it, on Mr.F, maths extraordinaire.....

I recently decided I wanted to get back into sewing some home accessories, I have previously made quilts cushions, caddies, tables cloths and the like, but with no real vision.

This time round however, I knew what I wanted to get started on. I wanted to create a table mat for the centre of our dining table, one that could live there permenantly when the table wasn't in use.

My colour scheme was grey, so I set to ordering my fabrics from the lovely The Village Haberdashery and M is for Make. 

Let me first explain something, when I designed this project I thought, yes! This can be my first English Paper Piecing project. Alas, when my beautiful fabric flew through my letterbox I got over eager, cut out my triangles and thought, I can sew this by machine! I don't need to hand sew! Let's do this thing. Well I did infact machine sew it, and I who would have thought it...... It was a hot mess!!! Ha ha. So I ripped it all apart and decided to do it properly.

I cut myself plenty of paper triangles, armed myself with my super new (and now favourite) Sewline Glue pen and prepped all of my triangles. I have to admit it was a lot quicker than I had anticipated. Then came the sewing, I found that a slip stitch worked the best for me, and as usual I used a super fine beading needle. 

The whole process of sewing the triangles went together quiete well, I struggled with some areas, mainly I think because one of my fabrics was a heavier weight and added some bulk to the joining seams. 

I then had the decision of how to finish it?

Do I quilt it? Do I add wadding? Do I machine quilt it all? Some of it? Argh!!

I had no idea what I was doing, this is my first piece of EPP and I think I made things more complicated by the somewhat awkward shape. 

No fear, armed with my other new toy, Clover Wonder Clips, I decided to bravely start to sew on the backing. I decided I didn't want wadding and I didn't want to machine quilt it.

In the end I opted to blind slip stitch a plain white cotton backing onto my table topper.

And here it is done!

Admittedly I really should have ironed this before I photographed it. (Curling edges are not cool)

The fabrics I used were;

Cotton and Steel - Moonlit Gems- Truly Outrageous Grey

Carolyn Fiedlander - Botanics - Crosshatch in Grey

Art Gallery Fabrics -  Indelible - Spirodraft in Carbon

Some grey and white cotton from my stash, and some grey paisley off cuts from Mr.F's trousers. 

I hand stitched in grey around only the white triangles, just enough to keep the backing in place.

I loved making this, and  am so glad I started afresh and completed my first EPP project.

I am now hooked and can't wait for my next project. 

I would love to know what you think and if you have any comments or tips for a beginner, I would love some shared knowledge. 

~HJF~ 

Alder Shirtdress - a Grainlinestudio Pattern

The Grainline Studio Alder Shirtdress is one of the many lovely patterns I received for christmas. 

Check out this sweet haul! 

Pretty lucky girl huh!

So I am gradually trying to work my way through the patterns, Linden - done, Nest egg Tote - done, and now the Alder shirtdress is finished, Yay!

I decided to try out this pattern using some lovely fabrics from M is for Make (they had a super sale on, and as ever they have excellent service)

I used a Kona cotton solid in Prussian (which in honesty was a little more *blue* than I had anticipated, more on that later) and some rather awesome Leah Duncan Florascape Moonstone from her Meadow collection by Art Gallery Fabrics. 

This pattern was a breeze to put together, it really was. I was a little hesitant about putting a collar in, it has been a few years since I have done one, the pattern is beautifully cut and didn't give me any trouble. 

I decided on adding some top stitched lines down either sides of the button placket to add some texture to the plain fabric. I have used bright blue Kam Snaps instead of buttons, and I am quite happy with the finish. 

The Snaps however were not the breeze I thought they would be! I trialled a few on Christmas Day when I got my new tool, and thought....yes! This is the most amazing thing ever! What can I put snaps on, I want to put snaps on everything!!! Quick, make something you can put snaps on!! Ha ha. 

In reality, I wasted seven, yes, SEVEN! Snaps making this dress, think I was tired and rushing to get it finished, so maybe I will have better luck next time. 

I adore the contrasting fabric I used for this shirtdress, in an ideal world the whole dress would have been made from it, alas, my contrasting collar and back yoke will have to do. 

I finished this dress and before adding the snaps I tried it on, and couldn't quite believe it. It fit, no FBA needed, no awful drag lines, ok, I would prefer a slightly softer fabric but the fit is good! 

Please excuse my awkward posing and weird non smile face, it is -1°C, there is still snow on the ground and I am outside prancing about in my summer weight shirtdress and jelly shoes trying to look all casual like I am not freezing... Ha ha. 

(p.s. I had ironed the dress just before I took the pics, looks like it's going to crease a little) 

All in all I love this shirt dress and I already have a lovely soft floaty rayon mix lined up for my next version. I also plan to take a few inches of the hem, so it sits just above the knee.

 I do have a slight issue with this dress, the colour. It is more blue than I anticipated, I was going for navy and this is quite royal blue. Totally my fault, it is true to the website colour swatch, I guess I didn't have my eyes on straight when I was ordering ha ha. The colour reminds me of a uniform a little too much, but I will still be wearing it. 

Thanks for stopping by.

~HJF~ 

Yoke top pattern hack

This make has been hanging in my wardrobe for a little while now, I finished it probably in September, ironed it and forgot all about it, hence not sharing.

I made my first Lauren Guthrie Yoke top a while back in October. I got the pattern free with my subscription of Love Sewing magazine. 

I really loved the pattern but I felt it didn't quite suit my, ahem, figure and the gathers only accentuated that. 

So after making my first yoke top I decided a pattern hack was in order. I loved the yoke and the neckline, but the gathers for me, personally had to go.  

Here is yoke top number one.

Loved the contrast piping, the slightly sixties collar and the a-line fit. I decided the best way to go would be to add bust darts for the shaping and I used Sew Over It - Ultimate Shift dress bodice as a guide. I could have drafted a new lower bodice piece from scratch but I wasn't going for anything too dramatic, and the measurements were pretty much spot on with out too much grading, I just had to shorten it. 

So here it is, my bust darted Lauren Gutherie Ultimate Yoke top. 

I used a rather lovely rayon mix from my vintage stash, which has wonderful drape and I am really hoping will work well for the summer. I usually make my own piping but I was at Chorley market and spotted a stall selling the most amazing jewel coloured bindings and pipings. Well that was it, I bought a selection, lovely. Although I love the colour of the piping, I will be going back to making my own as the quality was a little disappointing. 

For the back I left it pretty much identical, but instead of including a button placket I finished it edge to edge, creating a key hole, with a hook and eye fastening. 

And because my pictures don't quite do the fabric justice here is a close up. 

I am quite happy with the changes I made, but I think I will return to the button placket next time, I just think it creates a neater look. 

Looking forward to making my next one now. 

And here are a couple of me, looking super awkward in bad light, sorry about the bad quality. Hopefully my pics will improve now my remote has arrived and I can take pics in the daytime, yay!

Thanks for stopping by!

~HJF~

Christmas dress.... In January?!

I love a good christmas outfit, it was always a highlight as a child, what I got to wear on Christmas Day, and I guess not much has changed.

This year I decided on a dress, to be precise the Sew Over It - Ultimate shift dress.

I have made this dress three times now, it's a really simple shift dress, A-line shape and can be whipped up in a couple of hours. 

I made my first one for a wedding last October and made a few changes to the pattern for round two. 

I decided I wanted to go with a rather Christmassy fabric, and add a bit of bling.

So I did just that... I went with a holly print fabric with gold accents. 

But that just wasn't enough! 

I decided to bead the cuffs and stitch gems round the neckline. 

That's where it all went a bit wrong. 

This seemed like an excellent idea, really, it did. But somehow I managed to go from sixties inspired shift, to a dress fit for a glamour nana. Bad times. 

I still like it, and believe it or not, it looks a lot better on than it does on the hanger. 

I sadly didn't get to wear this on Christmas Day, or Boxing Day as planned as I wasn't well. I think this one might be left hanging in the wardrobe until next year. 

Thanks for stopping by and reading my seasonally inappropriate post. 

~HJF~ 

Bobble hats a plenty!

I started knitting when I was probably about sixteen, my aunty taught me the basic stitches and I was away. I knit lots of random squares with good intentions of knitting them together to form a blanket, but, well, that never happened.

I quickly moved on to bobble hats, I am not a quick knitter, so I needed something that gave me more or less, the instant satisfaction of a finished product. 

I started knitting hats, and haven't been able to stop.

My problem with knitting hats is that I never follow a pattern, I swatch up the wool for my cast on measurements and just go with it. I now have quite an array of hats, none alike. 

I decided to dig out all of my hand knitted bobble hats and see what I had. It turns out I have knitted fifteen in total over the last 10 years, fifteen! Who needs fifteen bobble hats!! Turns out I do, well actually I need sixteen, because I have just finished knitting up another. (Just in time for the snow we have here!)

Before I show you my latest knit, I want to share with you nine of my hat collection.

As you can see, they are all rather different, but most have a bobble, I love an oversized bobble, and I just feel it makes the hat sit better on my head too. 

Here is my latest addition to the collection. A blue and grey hat knit in a merino mix that is amazing to work with and the perfect weight for a hat. I had just enough of this left over after knitting a baby dress last year. 

I crept outside this morning to take some pictures of my hat in the snow, the light was just wonderful. 

Once again this is just a completely random pattern, I am sure expert knitters can spot many flaws but I am happy with it. That is not to say I am not still in search of the perfect hat pattern.... Any recomendations welcome?

Thanks for stopping by. 

~HJF~

Nest Egg Tote

I am so thrilled to have finished this tote bag, and it is officially my first sewing make of 2015!

Below is my Carolyn Friedlander - Nest Egg Tote.

I first spied this lovely pattern when I browsing through my instagram, it really stood out to me on Carolyn's page, and immediately fell for the unusual design. 

The tote is designed to initially to hold all of your sewing goodies whilst on the go, while this isn't usually something that happens for me I wanted to give the pattern a go.

I chose to use some Sew Caroline fabrics from her Gleeful range that I already had in my stash, I am so glad I did because I think the pop of colour compliments the tote shape nicely. 

I started this bag really not anticipating the amount of work that it would hold, there is a lot of measuring, cutting, and interfacing to be done before the sewing can begin- but that is in no way a criticism. 

The pattern called for some fairly strong interfacing, I couldn't find the one mentioned so I opted for the next best thing, which in strength worked wonderfully in ensuring the bag held it's shape. I did however encounter some problems sewing through the thicknesses, it turns out my lovely little Brother XR-65 machine is not too fond of the super strong interfacing I used. (I can't really blame my machine- its a whole 10 years old, and I have really put it through its paces in the past). 

I managed to sew everything together, but in places the stitching doesn't really fall into the 'pretty' category. 

I had the odd problem finding the right sized components here in the UK too. The tote handle is only 19mm wide, so finding appropriate buckle and D-rings proved a little tricky. (Ok, well not that tricky, but I wanted to order from the UK so I could get started ASAP, rather that waiting for some shiny metal ones to arrive from China)

I opted for some white plastic buckles and matching D-rings, I am happy with them for this project, but next time round, I want something a little more....snazzy! 

I made the tote exactly as the pattern recommended, I just wanted to get a feel for how it was going to look rather than going crazy with the changes just yet!

The Gleeful fabric was a dream to work with, I am a sucker for a quirky polka dot, so this fabric was perfect for me. I really do like the quality of Art Gallery Fabrics. 

I loved making this bag, I am not going to lie, there were times where this project sat on my sewing table for a few days because I was apprehensive about making the next step, but it was totally worth it in the end! 

It is a fairly intense make and I believe that fabric and notion choices are key to this project being a success. I have definitely learnt a lot on this one and already have plans for Nest Egg Tote number two!

(p.s. If you have this pattern already and are wondering which method I used to attach the lining, I went for the hand stitching method. I toyed with the idea of the glue gun as recommended but, the glue gun and I are not always friends, so I hand stitched the lining in with a beading needle.) 

Fabric - Gleeful range by Sew Caroline for Art Gallery Fabrics

Notions - White buckles ebay, D-rings -Kleins of London 

And lastly a few photos of the Tote with my drawing materials stashed inside.

~HJF~

My first Linden!!!

I was recently a very lucky girl at christmas and received a lot of amazing sewing patterns! But the first one I wanted to try out was my Grainline Studio-Linden pattern. I love sweatshirts and jumpers, let me tell you! So I jumped at the chance of a homemade, raglan sleeved cozy sweatshirt. I have made sweatshirts and hoodies a plenty before but I really wanted to see what all the hype was about! 

When I am sewing jersey or knit garments I like to make one straight out of the packet to see what it sizes up like...... Here lies my error.......

Baggy jumpers are my thing, but well I hadn't quite anticipated this amount of, well.... Slouch! Ha ha 

So here below is my first ever Linden sweatshirt in all it's bad fabric choice, slouchy, loveliness. 

I really like the sweatshirt pattern, I honestly think it is great and I can't wait to make another in some more suitable fabric. This was my toile, hence the rather questionable choice of fabric.

I did encounter a few problems, mainly because my fabric was a lightweight fairly unstable knit. 

I cut the neckband piece according to the pattern but due to the nature of my fabric when I attached the neckband it stretched virtually to nothing, leaving me with an unsightly looking thin neck band. Urgh!!!!

So I ripped out all of my overlooking for the neck (favourite job) and recut the neck double the depth. Second time around and the neckline was much better. 

If you would like to check out the pattern for yourself head to http://shop.grainlinestudio.com/collections/tops/products/linden-sweatshirt

I will definitely be making another, I have some rather nice grey and navy stripe fleece backed jersey that I think will be an entirely different story.

I wouldn't call this a complete disaster, but I have learnt my measuring lesson... I am pretty sure I have learnt that lesson before! 

And here is me in it pre yoga class because it is just perfect for that!

Embroidered wedding gift

Hi all, 

So after our wedding in July we were totally overwhelmed by the amazing gifts we received from friends and family. We received some lovely presents and some really personal gifts from people who had really thought about us as a couple. 

When my cousins wedding was fast approaching last august I decided I wanted to make them something personal for their wedding gift, I struggled to settle on something and in the end decided on an embroidered piece relating to their wedding day.

I sketched out my design freehand and using my (homemade) lightbox I transferred the design to my calico fabric. 

I then used watercolour paints to add colour to my work. I free machine embroidered the rest of the piece using different shades of blue and green. I then finished it with some hand embroidered french knots. 

Here is the finished embroidery, excuse the poor quality photographs, I forgot to snap it before I framed it. I really enjoyed making this for my cousin, there are definitely a few changes I would make next time around. The feather shapes need some improvement and I would maybe throw in another colour just to mix things up a bit. 

Vintage look baby romper

I wanted a small knitting project to see me through a couple of evenings. Now, I admit I am not the best of knitters! I am slow.... So I needed something fairly simple. I usually knit for a purpose but, I decided a baby garment would be a good idea. 

So a baby romper it is! 

                                     

I used a lovely pattern called Lesley from dailyknitter.com (link below)

http://www.dailyknitter.com/lesley.html

I knit this up pretty much as the pattern states but I added a striped bib section and a ribbed straps. This is knit for a 0-6 month old baby, but I see it being of more use in a larger size, knit in cotton for the summer. 

           

                                     

I plan to knit this up again soon, but I will make a few changes along the way. I plan to use a moss stitch for the bib section and lengthen the ribbing on the legs. It looks a little messy around the straps, so I hope to improve this next time around, but all in all I loved knitting this up, so quick too!